LAWLEY, William

William Lawley was from a family of sub-gentry rank established at Much Wenlock. No accurate pedigree can be established, but our MP may have been the son of Thomas Lawley, feoffee of Hugh Dudmaston of Bridgnorth in 1402, and the brother, probably the younger one, of another Thomas, who attested five Shropshire parliamentary elections in the 1420s.3 Salop Archs., Dudmaston mss, 2922/2/9; C219/12/4, 5; 13/4, 5; 14/1. However this may be, he was one of a group of Shropshire lawyers who made their career in the court of King’s bench in the first half of the fifteenth century. The first of their number was Hugh Holgot of Holdgate, who became filacer for Shropshire and Staffordshire in 1399 and was promoted to the chief clerkship in 1411. He was presumably responsible for obtaining filacerships for two of his local associates, Richard Corve and John Corve*, who, like Lawley, hailed from Much Wenlock, a few miles to the north of Holdgate.4 For evidence of Holgot acting with the Corves: Sel. Cases King’s Bench (Selden Soc. lxxxviii), 246: Add. Chs. 38829-30, 38832, 38838; Salop Archs. deeds 6000/12868, 12905. Lawley was the fourth member of this group. He was active as an attorney in King’s bench by Michaelmas term 1419, and, less than ten years later, he was appointed to the least profitable of the clerkships, that of Shropshire and Staffordshire; there is no need to doubt that he owed the office to his connexions with Holgot and the Corves. Unfortunately, however, the direct evidence of that connexion is confined to a single reference: in Easter term 1424, described as ‘of Wenlock, gentleman’, he joined Richard Corve in that court in offering surety for the payment of a fine by a Shropshire yeoman.5 KB27/634, att. rot. 2d; 652, fines rot. Earlier, in 1419, William’s putative elder brother, Thomas, joined Holgot and the Corves in offering mainprise for the prior of Wenlock, appealed of harbouring Sir John Oldcastle†: Sel. Cases King’s Bench, 246.

Lawley’s career was not confined to King’s bench. In 1426-7 he served as under sheriff of Shropshire for Thomas Corbet I*, receiving, during his term of office, 2s. 3d. from William, Lord Ferrers of Groby, for his favour in that lord’s affairs, and 6s. 8d. from the borough authorities of Shrewsbury ‘pro bono servicio’.6 Add Roll 65954; Salop Archs. Shrewsbury recs., bailiffs’ accts. 3365/363. His return to represent Bridgnorth in 1429 probably reflects a willingness to serve without wages. His fellow Member, Richard Blike*, was also a lawyer, and he went on to represent that borough on at least nine further occasions. Perhaps Lawley would have enjoyed a similar career had he lived. As it transpired, however, he did not long survive his only Parliament. He died between Trinity and Michaelmas terms 1430, when he was replaced in his filacership by William Betley. It is tempting to suggest that John Lawley*, also a lawyer and a Bridgnorth MP, was his son, but it is more likely that John was the son of his putative elder brother, Thomas.